Skip to main content

Here Comes Thanksgiving

By

thanksgiving-vintage-postcardOn TV:

The Stivics' Thanksgiving visit is ruined when Archie finds out that the Meathead lost his job for marching against nuclear energy---in the nude. Mike: Rob Reiner. Edith: Jean Stapleton. Gloria: Sally Struthers. Murray: Martin Balsam. Stephanie: Danielle Brisebois. Barney: Allan Melvin.

Ah, the 70s – where an awful lot happened in the nude. I’m not sure why they left out Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker.

But surely nuclear energy must have something to contribute to the day:

I assume that you all know how a nuclear reactor works. In the oven idea, instead of steam spinning a turbine, it flows around an open topped box which food may be placed in, and viola a nuclear oven!

Viola! A perfect turkey in milliseconds.

Something to contribute, for real. In Oswego County, N.Y.:

Despite a downturn in donations, Catholic Charities’ food pantry will provide more than 250 families with all the fixings for a complete Thanksgiving meal.

“It has been a very challenging year,” said Helen Hoefer, supervisor of Catholic Charities’ Community Services Program. “Thanks to the generosity of businesses such as Fidelis, who supplied the distribution bags, employees of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group’s Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, who adopted families, and other community members we are able to continue to distribute Thanksgiving food baskets.”

Not an unusual occurrence. Nuclear energy facilities are exceptionally good neighbors.

For example:

From Pilgrim in Massachusetts (how appropriate is this?), a wrap-up of 2011 activities:

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station's chapters of Women in Nuclear (WIN) and our North American-Young Generation (NA-YGN) [both associated with NEI – ed.] had another productive year. Together, these chapters conducted a "Fly the Flag" campaign that involved selling American flags as a fundraiser to support outreach programs, in particular our soldiers serving overseas; conducted a Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station campaign to raise funds as part of a Japan relief effort; hosted a Thanksgiving Day food drive; and sponsored a Christmas Toys for Tots campaign supporting Children's Cove in Hyannis, a center for abused children as well as a Winter clothing donation campaign.

I’m sure 2012 will be equally busy.

But something’s missing in all this - the nuclear energy that really matters on Thanksgiving Day.

No matter what family drama occurs throughout the year, on Thanksgiving, my complete nuclear family sits down together, gives thanks and eats pavo en chile rojo over Manischewitz, a seasonal sweet Jewish wine.

Turkey or pavo (or dindon or Puten). And your nuclear family and atomic friends.

Happy Thanksgiving from your atomic friends at NEI Nuclear Notes!

Comments

Anonymous said…
"Viola" means a string instrument, "Voilà!" the same as "presto!".
November 25, 2012 at 4:46 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...
23 comments
Read more

How many nuclear plants does it take to meet the world's energy needs?

By
Several weeks ago Joshua Pearce at Clarion University in Pennsylvania released a study titled “ Thermodynamic limitations to nuclear energy deployment as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology .” In the study he stated... nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050 to both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands. This line, of course, made the headlines and has been picked up by several outlets and blogs . When looking into his calculations for this statement, he made one assumption error that overstated the above sentence by nearly a factor of three. Page 121, Section 4.1 of the study states: Richard Smalley pointed out that in 2004, the global economy consumed the equivalent of 220 million barrels of oil per day, which converted into electricity terms is the equivalent of 14.5 TeraWatts (TW), or 14,500,000 MegaWatts (MW) (2005). … With a nuclear plant having about 1000 MW (1 GW) of capacity, we would need 14,500...
7 comments
Read more

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

By
You may have noticed over the past few weeks that a number of nuclear plants are shut down for refueling outages or are resuming operations after just returning from one. This type of routine outage usually occurs in the spring or fall when electricity demand is low so that nuclear reactors can replace about one-third of the spent fuel rods with new fuel and conduct other routine maintenance and repairs at the plant. To get a better sense of how refueling works at a nuclear energy facility, I spoke with Marcus Nichol, NEI’s senior project manager for used fuel storage and transportation, and asked him to explain the basics. Why does a nuclear plant need to replace one-third of its fuel? Nichol: The main purpose of a refueling outage is to replace older fuel that is depleted—meaning it can no longer efficiently produce energy from nuclear fission reactions—with new fuel. This “used fuel” has typically been used in the reactor for four-and-a-half to six years before it is pe...
6 comments
Read more